Topic: Baldur's Gate 3

After 57 hours me and my brother finally reached Baldur’s Gate. I love how easy it is to get distracted. The amount of times we planned to progress the story and then ended up spending hours doing other things instead.

@Thrillho it sounds like you are progressing at a similar way to most new players. I wasn't comfortable until I'd done quite a bit of the early area, long rested a few times at camp to see how storyline advancing works and eventually settled in to quest hunting by talking to random npcs, and exploring without a set goal just to see what I could find in a certain grove area you may or may not have stumbled upon yet.

As for the cutscene pause, there is not really many actual proper cut scenes, most are just dialgue scenes and you can quick save at any moment during those 😄

@Thrillho Hopefully the combat will grow on you the more you play. At first I wasn’t a fan, to the point that I dreaded most combat encounters, but now I’ll happily get into a fight!

@Ravix I've done plenty in Emerald Cove and picked up a fair few tasks from there. Just been exploring the Blighted Village and am heading into the goblin camp with Sazza who I freed in the Cove. Had to reload recently after opening a barn with two ogres getting it on

@Bentleyma I'm getting the hang of it. I've subbed Lae'zel and Wyll into my group which has made things seem a bit easier. I'm a bit confused as to why entering combat in stealth only lets me use my main character though.

@Thrillho your other party members will be failing stealth checks, perhaps? Stealth checks happen when you're in the red area, and a good rogue will remain hidden, whereas a giant Gith fighter... might not lol. If you separate yourself from the party you can stealth, and then have them go in after (or before) to create chaos as you sneak around assassinating, otherwise they should at least attempt to crouch if you're hitting down when grouped as a party. If you stay out of the red areas that pop up you will all remain in stealth out of combat st least.

Ahhh, the early discovery joy, I loved that phase of the game, where everything is new and random and you can discover all kinds of stuff 🤣

I bet whatever happens for you in act one is different on my entire act one, I mean I can already tell as you saved Sazza, whereas I just stopped them killing her unjustly, and then left her there once i had the information I needed 😅 which means we probably made most decisions different. I mean, for one, I accidentally discovered a secret tunnel hidden in the Grove and ended up going on a Goblin killing spree (they started it) but it literally only happened as I was being nosey and just utterly in awe of just being able to do stuff in a way I wanted 😁

@Ravix I hadn’t realised about splitting the party up but found this separately to your post and it makes quite a difference for combat! My party are now level 4 as well which is making combat easier and giving me more options to play with too.

I’ve just finished in the goblin camp and this video popped up on my Twitter feed. So many ways of taking on this area and many of them I would never even have thought of!

I did wonder what that potion the goblin “healer” gave me was meant to do but turns out the sleeping potion does nothing to my wood elf

@Thrillho you finished it? I remember spending days there exploring and going back and to before actually fighting any Goblins 🤣

Did you walk in and just start a fight, or did you chill for a while and check out some random encounters? Or did you not fight the goblins and do the other thing instead? 👀

@Ravix Because I had Sazza with me, I could just waltz into the camp and do what I want.

I had to kill the “healer”. As the sleeping potion didn’t affect me she turned aggressive. She’s meant to look the door beforehand so it’s just you but I snuck the rest of the party in and hid behind her and killed her before she called for reinforcements. Found the secret passage under her room but haven’t explored yet.

Freed the bard, spoke with everyone else, and rescued the bear/druid with the resultant fight.

So I’m just at the point of heading back to the grove to protect them from the goblins but told them I’d help them out in battle.

@Thrillho some of that is similar to mine, then. I think I just blagged my way in, despite killing the guard post, the camp didn't know that was me, so I spent ages just chilling there, discovering anything I could and going back to the Grove to clear up some other stuff, I think.

As the Goblins were having a never ending party, by the time I was ready to launch a full assault/assassinate the leaders, I decided to play music for them, they gathered round listening as Astarion went off to spike the ale. A very cool moment as the music is great and it was quite foreboding as I knew what I was planning to do to them as they watched me in awe.

A couple of my party had to succeed checks about spiking the Ale, I could just flat deny it, but Karlach had to pretend to drink the ale, and give a speech "lets drink until we die" or something like that aha, and also intimidate one once they realised it was spiked, and she basically told one loud accuser that she could always impale him, and he just, gulped, then shouted "oh no, nothing to see here, suspect must have run for it" or something 😅

The main battle was a while after this, as I made my way back inside so I could assassinate and fight my way out against the weaker enemies. I'd also noticed war drums on my way in, so was slyly taking then out from time to time to stop reinforcements 😁

I beat the goblin attack on the grove last night which was pretty tough. I had to restart at one point and swap out Astarion for Wyll as I needed Wyll and Gale for the spells as so much of the combat was more long range.

Lae’zel helped take out the spiders and any other enemies that made it on top with my character helping out with both. His dual wielding short sword/dagger is quite useful for some of those instances.

A 200+ hour twist is my favourite kind of twist. The quest seeking a dragon was both very cool and also very telling. And I was kind of powerless to do anything but go along with the fight. But also, I now kind of can't wait to give someone their long due comeuppance, and this kind of gives me the motivation to do it. I love how much grey area there is in all of the stories though, and it would be easy to argue and take the other characters side, I guess, but I am convinced, and no longer will I put up with it haha.

Don't click the spoiler unless you're basically at the end game or have finished it, as it is late, late game theory/discussion.

Just cleared the 'Hag' fight last night,,, closest I've come to dropping the difficulty down to explorer, but thankfully I prevailed and eventually beat her!

A great fight, and one that totally benefits from preparing adequately. A hideous villain, and testament to the writing/acting (yet again!)

Currently level 4, but wanting to hit level 5 so I can return to the Goblin camp and clear it out... currently the whole camp is full-aggro since I killed one of their leaders lol

@CJD87 Hag quest is what made me first think, yep, this is like TW3 in quality of side content and depth and tone and just ruddy awesomeness 😁

And hahahaha at the camp aggro. Did you at least try to blend in for a while, or just see goblin shoot goblin? 😁😁😁

Love reading back on where people are up to, these areas were literally months ago for me, but still my memories of them are strong.

@Ravix The quality of that sub-quest is amazing... the Hag is so well-written & evil, I genuinely felt amazing finally putting her down! It is a clever fight as it really makes you think... I used Gale's 'magic missile' to target several clones of her once she multiplies, allowing me to easily deduce in 1 turn which is the 'real' target. Also using Shadowheart to cast Silence means she can't use any spells requiring her voice etc. Really smart stuff!

Ahh Goblin camp, bloody hell! I took out Princess Gut easily, and then called upon my 3 ogre friends to support with Drow Ragzlin.... but once you take him out the whole camp goes beserk! So I'll level up to lv5 and then return for Goblin genocide (and rescuing Halsim of course )

Just recruited Karlach and doing a subquest to hunt down some Paladins that want her dead. Also, came across a Vampire hunter looking for Astarion, which is a really cool side story.

Love this game! TOTK was great, but Baldurs is absolutely GOTY in my eyes

@CJD87 haha was Astarion in your party at the time? He was in mine and it led to quite a fun encounter 😁😁😁 "oh, this pale MF with fangs who is clearly agitated by your presence? Nah, can't be him, it's day time, isn't it?" needless to say, it didn't end well for old vampire hunter, as my role as leader meant I was absolutely not allowing anyone to threaten the safety of any of my party, and a little nudge and wink and I let Astarion announce that he indeed was the Vamp he was looking for. And I got a nice crossbow out of it that I used for some time ☠️

@Ravix Ah unfortunately he wasn't with me at the time! It kills me to say this, but I have him permanently benched in camp... mainly because my character is a Rogue Class and having Astarion with me would dilute my overall group efficiencies (makes no sense to double up on Rogues I guess).

It must have been awesome to have him with you during that interaction! I think his back story, alongside Shadowheart, is one of the most interesting. Neil Newbon was incredibly deserving of the VA award at the Game Awards - Neil does a great job breathing life into that character.

How many hours did your first playthrough take out of interest? And did you play Balanced difficulty? Balanced seems perfect for me right now, as I am frequently challenged (having to reload a few fights, Hag took me a fair few goes) but not getting too wrecked.

@CJD87 yeah, balanced. Started on easy but realised very soon I could handle it on balanced despite being new. I've not quite finished, as i've been taking it slow, although I'm getting incredibly close now as I did one fairly big session last night to wrap up a few companion quests, I knew I'd need a longer session to be able to take in all that was happening as they were things I was invested in, and I'm glad I did.

But it's probably around the 250hr mark total.

I agree about Astarion and the performance, he hasn't been in my party a great deal, as my Bard has been quite rogue like in terms of traps and lockpicking and talking, but I've always kept him around for doing stuff that suits him more, stealth based stuff that I don't do as a Bard. But my most used party has been, Me and Shadowheart pretty much permanently, A front line force, early that was Lae'zel (superemely underrated character) and Karlach more for the middle and end of the game, and Gale for AOE who would be the one that swaps with Astarion. They are all absolute gold tbh.

But it is clear that Astarion is one of the best characters and performances, no matter how much you use him in the fights. By the end the performance steps up 100% and it is truly breathtaking as a character arc, in my game, anyway.

I basically finished a couple of character arcs last night and feel like I pretty much have to have a break from the game as it is so emotionally charged. So much to take in, and truly superb writing and performances.

@CJD87 I took the Hag down earlier today; good tip on using Gale's "missiles" to clear the duplicates! I didn't struggle too much with the fight though to be honest as I sneakily positioned everyone around the battlefield and Lae'zel and Karlech did the heavy hitting (although I did have to restart the fight as I accidentally killed the woman after extinguishing the flames on the cage... whoops!)

I actually did the goblin camp already. As I said before, I got in easily as I released Sazza from the grove and she let me in. Princess Gut I killed easily by sneaking everyone else in the party into the room and taking her out before she called for reinforcements. I poisoned the wine in the courtyard to take most of them out that way, and then I told the main boss I'd help them attack the grove before taking down the goblins from inside the grove (a tough fight!).

Although I'm currently trying to sneak back in to go explore the secret area in Gut's chamber..

Oh dammit, I finally made it back to that point and then realised there’s a fast travel point there 😁

@Thrillho What truly fascinates me about this game is the differentiation between everyone's experiences... it must be nearly impossible for any given player to experience 'everything' unless you're willing to undertake numerous playthroughs? Interesting you had Karlach for the Hag, as I hadn't actually recruited her yet! The 'Magic Missiles' tip was solid - I often forget what spells/skill each character has due to the wealth of options, and occasionally just need to re-familiarise myself with their action wheels lol. Well done on the camp, I'm planning to go back in full-on assault mode as soon as I hit level 5!

@Ravix Yeh agree completely that all the VAs are pretty incredible, Lae-zel also is a terrific performance in fairness. Really goes to show the power that these performances can have, in terms of immersion and also overall 'game quality'. Makes me think back to Disco Elysium.... how different that game must have been for those who played it pre-VA patch? (I can't imagine reading all that text, without audio performances!!)
Lae-zel is a permanent fixture in my party also, albeit she tends to miss a lot? I have her using the flame sword I pillaged from the commander within the tutorial session, but she seems to rarely land hits!
How would you rank BG in your GOTY assessment?